Heretofore, a hard disk recording and reproducing apparatus which uses a hard disk as a recording medium has been be in practical use in the field of an apparatus for recording (video recording) a television broadcast. In case of this hard disk recording and reproducing apparatus, it is possible to record a television broadcast signal, for example, by a recording capacity of several ten giga-bytes for several ten hours. With respect to the recordable hours, they are assumed to increase depending upon the improvement in the recording density of the recording medium such as a hard disk and/or upon the improvement in the compression technology of the broadcast data.
In this hard disk recording and reproducing apparatus, there is an apparatus which receives electric program guide data called an EPG (Electric Program Guide) in order to perform video-recording of television programs easily. EPG data are to be added to broadcast data in case of a broadcast system such as a digital satellite broadcast and also to be sent by adding them in a specific time zone such as a blanking period of a video signal in a specific channel in case of a ground wave such as an analog broadcast. Further, there is also another system where they are signal-distributed to a user-side recording and reproducing apparatus through a transmitting means such as an internet without any connection with the transmission of the broadcast data.
An effect is obtained for users such that a video-record reservation of a desired program can be performed relatively easily by receiving the EPG data transmitted in this manner, by displaying a program table of a television broadcast on a receiver screen according to the received EPG data and by performing an operation of selecting a program which is desired to be video-recorded in the program table.
Also, it is possible to make a serial program reservation in a lump such as of serial dramas which are broadcasted, for example, at a predetermined time everyday by utilizing the program table according to the EPG data. Further, it is also possible to search a program by a preset keyword and to automatically reserve of a program which was found by that search.
In a publication of an unexamined application No. 2000-28747 published by the Japanese Patent Office, there is a description of one example of a television receiver where a video-record reservation is made by utilizing such electronic program data.
And now, in a case when recording is carried out by a broadcast program recording apparatus such as a hard disk recording and reproducing apparatus and when a picture recording reservation is carried out by utilizing electronic program data, the picture recording reservation is carried out per one program shown by the electronic program data, so that in the recorded data, recording data of one unit comes to correspond to one program. However, there is also a case as for the picture recording process using this kind of recording apparatus in which a picture recording reservation is carried out not only by the reservation picture recording process according to these kinds of EPG data but also, for example, by appointing a channel number, a picture recording start time and an ending time according to a user's preference. In addition, there is also a case in which a program on air is picture-recorded by pushing down a picture-recording start button. In such cases, a picture recording is to be carried out until a predetermined picture-recording ending time or until a user pushes down picture-recording stop button and even if a plurality of programs are broadcasted during a period from that recording start to the recording end, the recording at that time is to be recorded as a program of one unit.
Consequently, in a case when, for example, a program broadcast which a user wants to watch begins after 30 minutes from the recording start and when the program recorded at that time is to be reproduced, it is necessary to carry out a fast forward reproduction for the recording interval of approximately 30 minutes from the beginning of the program or the like so as to perform a so-called index-search operation, so that it could not be said that it was sufficiently easy-to-use.
The present invention was invented in view of such an aspect and has an object to make a recording mode in case of recording a broadcast program to be a mode in which it is easily used on an occasion of a reproducing.